HAVE WE AS A COUNTRY SURPASSED THE EXPECTATIONS OF THIS GREAT LEADER? : DS - THE MAN WITH A COMMON TOUCH
4 February, 2018

By Vimukthi Fernando
Features

Elegance, flamboyance, pomp and pageantry – that was the ‘Appointed Day’. The country went wild with glee. As the bells tolled the midnight hour announcing another day, up roared crackers of joy. The hues of white, red and green sparked from buildings, including the Colombo Town Hall decorated for the occasion. The country’s citizenry lined up the streets to welcome the dawn of another era, ‘freedom’ singing sweetly in their hearts. Young or old, rich or poor, Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher- there was no distinction. Those who were living in the ‘tear drop island’ of the Indian Ocean united themselves as Ceylonese, in true solidarity.

It was the ‘Appointed Day’ the day of independence, where more than four centuries of colonial yoke under varied ‘powers’ from the West was taken off from the citizenry. Since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505, Sri Lanka was subjugated progressively by the Dutch and the British. Though the last imperial masters tried to conquer the central Kandyan Kingdom it was only by the signing of a treaty-the Kandyan Convention, that the British gained complete control over the country. Under the colonial yoke, the people of Sri Lanka rebelled many a time, only to be quelled with brutal force employed by the then masters. Autonomy was the longing and the cry of the populace for four centuries.

However, Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) was granted independence ‘peacefully, without bloodshed. Seventy years ago, on February 4 1948, the ‘Declaration of Independence’ was signed. It all happened because of a team of dedicated leaders, patriotic visionaries who loved the people. In the wake of the last independence movement, numerous leaders suffered and sacrificed much.

Though different leaders took the helm, the last and the most effective lap was lead by Don Stephen Senanayake, acclaimed ‘Father of the Nation’ and fondly known as ‘DS’ by all.

Famed as a man of true vision who trudged towards his goal with indomitable courage, what was he really like? What was his vision for the nation? It was the Temperance Movement, originated in opposition to the ‘Toddy Act’ of the British in 1912 which brought the ‘Father of the Nation’ to the limelight, says former Cabinet Minister and Parliamentarian, Rukman Senanayake, his grandson.

DS was a prominent figure in the Movement where his father Don Spater Senanayake and uncles D.C Senanayake and F.R. Senanayake were involved in. He was the force behind convincing and canvassing people to remove taverns from villages, due to their adverse effect on society.

Though the government made the task doubly hard with a mandate of seventy five percent of the poll tax payers of the relevant area, DS overcame the challenge not allowing any taverns in ‘Hapitagam Korale’ where he resided.

As the government income fell due to loss of revenue from liquor sales, the animosity towards the Senanayake brothers intensified. So much so, when a riot between the Sinhalese and Muslims started in May 1915, though DS carried out his duty as a Town Guard, travelling with brother F.R stopping the Sinhalese from attacking the Muslims, the authorities arrested the three brothers and jailed them for 46 days, after which they were released without trial.

However, Captain Henry Pedris a leader of the Movement and then Commander of the Home Guard Battalion of Colombo, was falsely accused of aiding the Sinhalese and was executed. The authorities brought the chair, smeared with his blood to F.R. and threatened him with the same fate, compelling F.R. to vow to rid the country of the British rule.

The Independence Movement born thus consisted of leaders from all ethnic communities. DS was put to the fore by his brother F.R. who knew his capabilities. Though his untimely death affected DS he was capable of unifying and leading the group through a path of peaceful negotiation. Their efforts came to fruition on the 4th of February, 1948, in the form of independence.

Different from his brothers, in his youth DS was known as Kele John by those around him, says Rukman Senanayake. Though he remembers little of his grandfather, family legend portrays his great humour, humility and concern for people. Gifted and talented, DS was not one to be contained in a classroom. Often missing school, he roamed the village resulting in being ‘last’ in class.

Once, answering his father he had said that he was the fourth in the class, which made the happy father prepare a feast in his honour. However, it had been an inquisitive invitee who had asked DS of the number of students in the class, to which he had replied truthfully that there were four.

Another time when villagers were fleeing from a man who suffered from smallpox, a deadly disease at the time, young DS had carried the man on his shoulder, walking five miles to the hospital. Back home he had applied ‘lime’ all over his body and had had a bath, much to the chagrin of his caring mother.

“Villagers still remembered him fondly, even at the time I was visiting villages as a Minister,” reminiscences Rukman. In Polonnaruwa, villagers remembered how D.S. had slept under a tree, how he had filled his stomach from a tin of salmon and some water from a nearby canal representing them as their Minister of Agriculture.

“He was a person with a common touch. Even as the Prime Minister, he could be seen in his banian and sarong, at a kiosk having coffee with people.”

His vision for the country entailed development at the grassroots level. “He always said development of a country could only be measured by the amount of food available in the poorest man’s home,” explains Rukman Senanayake.

In DS’s political view, population must come first. He was of the opinion that the GDP or any such measure was a useless mode to find out the development. He held the notion that the main focus of development should be on how to enrich the poorest, mainly through improvement of agriculture. It was the main and the motivating factor. The rest, be it industries or commerce should supplement.

A leader who was bold enough to speak the truth as it was, one factor his gentlemanly politics never comprised was the cleaving of power. DS saw power as transient and himself a trustee appointed temporarily to guide the affairs of the nation.

His address at the University of Ceylon Convocation, in 1947 is a reminder of his humility. Encouraging the graduates to take up the leadership of the country he said “The future of the country lies not with the birds of passage who have been elected to Parliament but with the young men and women of the country.”

Have we as a country surpassed the expectations of this great leader of yore, failed to achieve or tarried from his vision altogether? 70 years thence, it is time to appraise.

European empires in Asia collapsed after World War II. Struggles for independence started in most Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar). The Indian struggle for independence was tainted with violence. There were massacres and migrations on a large scale. Aung San, the youthful leader of the Burmese independence struggle did not live to see the great day when Burma was granted independence on October 17, 1947. This was because he was assassinated on June 19, 1947. India did not plunge into a civil war because of the device of partition.

Ceylon’s situation was quite different. There was peace and order in the country. Therefore, the British decided to offer Independence to Ceylon on a platter. There was no division in the country and Ceylon became an independent nation on February 4, 1948. There was, of course, a political issue as far as the Tamils were concerned. However, Tamils in Ceylon at the time were not a militant group. G.G. Ponnambalam led the Tamils in their political campaigns. Eventually, he was elected to the State Council in 1934, prior to the grant of independence. He represented The Tamil Congress and brought in a few more Tamil politicians into the government.

As a Minister in the D.S. Senanayake government, Ponnambalam held moderate political views. He found it easy to work with his political rivals. While enjoying ministerial perks and prestige, he was in a position to influence policy matters of the government. Ponnambalam publicly acknowledged the genuine interest of the government to help the minorities. He understood the political situation correctly and worked carefully to win generous concessions to Tamils.

At the time, there were constitutional guarantees preventing legislation against minorities. They were embedded in the draft constitution of 1944 which was introduced by Senanayake. However, the Soulbury Constitution of 1946-47 did not provide adequate rights for minorities against discriminatory legislation. The minorities who had confidence in Senanayake later helped him to form the United National Party (UNP). The new political party soon won the confidence of the minorities. Even the majority community accepted the UNP as a credible political party.

It was against this background that S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike formed his Sinhala Maha Sabha (SMS). It was initially backed by Christian minorities. Muslims who supported the Tamils in the past started backing the SMS. With the support of the Tamil Congress, Senanayake established himself as a competent ruler. Plantation workers of Indian origin were not regarded as an organized group and were left out.

Senanayake is remembered today as a politician who prevented all efforts to abandon the concept of a secular state and religious neutrality. Although Buddhists were not pleased with the influence enjoyed by Christians, there was no religious conflict in the country. With the grant of independence, the transfer of political power was smooth.

The last British Governor Sir Henry Monck-Mason-Moore (1948-49) became the first Governor General of Ceylon. Unlike India and Pakistan which opted for republican status, Ceylon recognized the Commonwealth headed by the British monarch.

However, some historians argue that Ceylon did not receive complete independence as it had agreements on defence and external affairs with the British. It is further alleged that our attainment of independence was not robust or dramatic which is true to a certain extent.

In the 1947 general elections, the most formidable challenge to the UNP came from the leftist parties. Eventually, many Trotskyists and Communists found themselves elected to Parliament. They and their fellow travellers held about one-fifth of the membership. There was speculation that leftists would form a government, but that was not to be.

After the grant of independence, the UNP stabilized its position in politics, but the leftists remained divided on personal and ideological grounds. As a result, leftists could not appoint a leader of the Opposition. The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) was the largest opposition group, but the Bolshevik Sama Samaja Party was against it. In 1950, however, Dr N.M. Perera became the Leader of the Opposition with no support from the Communist Party (CP).

The situation today is no less different. The UNP is the only undivided political party. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), founded by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, stands divided, with some members supporting the UNP and others opposing it. The CP and the LSSP are no longer vibrant parties. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) takes different stands at different times and people are wondering where it is heading. In a way, the leftists remain divided on various grounds. This is the pathetic scenario in post-independent Sri Lanka.